SOO EXPORTATION : F MANURES. 



While I agree with M. de Bethu: e, that it is generally wibe to 

 encourage exportation, I also admit with him that there are sub- 

 stances in reference to which it wot Id be prudent to discourage ex- 

 portation ; oil-cake, this powerful rjeans of giving fertility to the 

 soil, might be placed in the foremost rank of such substances. I am 

 far from adopting all the principles of economists, which appear to 

 me to be frequently far too absolute. In my opinion, any exportation, 

 the consequence of which is the impoverishment of the soil, ought 

 to be prohibited. I should, for instance, oppose the exportation of 

 arable soil ; and in the same way, to allow an active manure to pass 

 into the hands of strangers, is, in my eyes, tantamount to exporting 

 the vegetable soil of our fields, to lessening their productiveness, to 

 raising the price of the food of the poor ; for as much labor is re- 

 quired, as much care and capital must be expended upon an ungrate- 

 ful soil to obtain a little, as upon a fertile soil to procure an ample 

 return. To permit the exportation of oil-cake is to hinder the hus- 

 bandman from taking advantage of all the circumstances with which 

 nature presents him ; it is as if a chill were to be brought over the 

 genial climate of France.* 



I have shown the advantages of the application of oil-cake in the 

 growth of wheat. I shall now inquire whether or not it is equally 

 useful in connection with hay and potato crops ; the price of the 

 article being presumed to be the same as before. 



Upland meadows, when they have not been soiled, yield miserable 

 returns, and their situation renders them difficult of access to carts : 

 oil-cake in such circumstances comes powerfully to our aid. 



Taking the price of hay at 5s. per 220 lbs,, which is about its 

 present price in France, and taking into account the composition of 

 the after-math, we may reckon the- azote contained in the hay of 

 natural meadows at 0.015. 



220 lbs. of hay, containing 3 lbs. of azote, will be worth 5«. Od, 



To produce which 56 lbs. of cake (azote 3.3 lbs.) worth Is, 8d. 



would be required. 



Difference in value between the cost and the crop 3s. 4d. 



Upon this showing, oil-cake may be advantageously employed in 

 the amelioration of upland meadows. Besides the cost of the ma- 

 nure, however, there are the very necessary additions to be made of 

 the price of labor and rent. 



From the observations which I made at Bechelbronn in 1839, I 



* I own I am surprised at this passage in my esteemed author. There is nothing 

 parallel in the instances he quotes. Did not the French husbandmen and oil-pressors 

 jn-ofit by the exportation of oil-cake they woBld keep it at home ; and the profit of the 

 farmer and manufacturer is the profit of the whole coiimiuriity. To export the soi: 

 would indeed be madness : it would obviously be killinji the goose that lays the goldea 

 eggs ; but to export that which the soil produces in abundance year after year, is a 

 totally diflferent affair, M. Boussingault's reasoning would lead the wine-growers of 

 Bordeaux and Burgundy to refuse us a hogshead of their smallest growth : they cannot 

 send it to vs without impoverishing their sul, any more than they can let us have a pound 

 of their oil-cake. But one half of the vegetables tliat grow, at least, are at work ac- 

 cumulating the materials from the atmosphere and water, out of which the other half 

 are supplied, and so the process of wnste fmd tnpply, of destruction and reproducUoo, 

 goes on wiih'jul limit;-, and wiihcut cnd.-^E.NQ. Ed. 



